12 Years a Slave

Just like when I saw Prisoners a couple months ago, I felt emotionally drained walking out of 12 Years a Slave.  However, it wasn't just that.  I also felt sad and very angry.  I had just been through the emotional wringer, and I was grateful that director Steve McQueen had gone to that extra effort.  This is an astonishing piece of filmmaking that is bound to be remembered long after the Award Season hype has died down.  I have been moved emotionally by films in the past, but I have never felt such an effect as this, where a movie just enveloped me with its emotions, and even a day later after seeing it, its effect has barely faded.

I think the entire movie and the feelings it inspires can be summed up in an entire scene that occurs late in the film.  In it, we get a shot where the camera holds on the face of Solomon Northrup (Chiwetel Ejofor).  Up to this point, we have been following Solomon's tragic journey of when he was a free black man in Syracuse, New York with a wife and two children, and how he was abducted and sold into slavery back in the 1840s.  We have seen him go through unimaginable cruelty and abuse, none of which the movie shies away from, showing us every hardship that he and those around him have gone through.  The scene is free of dialogue, and feels almost like a quiet meditation on everything Solomon has gone through.  As the camera holds on his face, we are clearly looking at someone who can handle no more.  He has been defeated completely in spirit.  We get to see this and feel this with no sound, no dialogue, and no underlying music score. 

Just a little while ago, I described this film as Solomon's tragic journey, but this really is a depiction of the tragedy of so many people, not just him.  The tragedy centers around not just the fellow slaves who were equally broken and chipped away in spirit, but also in a way by the cruel people who are doing these things, and how they defend their actions.  No, this is not a movie to watch, nor should it be.  And less you think the movie is one big guilt trip, it is not.  It is a masterfully crafted drama that goes deeper into its subject matter than any earlier film has ever dared.  In one early scene, a slave trader played by Paul Giamatti guides potential customers through a beautiful mansion-like home, where black men and women are forced to stand naked on display so that the buyers can "inspect them at their leisure", and see how fit they are to work.  It is a scene of horror and humiliation unlike anything I have ever seen before.  It was this scene that first made me realize just how powerful this film was going to be, and that it would not be holding back in any way.

Solomon is one of those people who watches his freedom disappear.  We get some brief early scenes of happiness, and then, he has the misfortune of running into a pair of con artists who offer him a job, and take him out to a luxurious restaurant to celebrate, only to drug his drink, and sell him to the previously mentioned trader.  So begins Solomon's 12 year ordeal.  His first owner (Benedict Cumberbatch) is actually somewhat benevolent toward Solomon.  This does not last long, as Solomon soon runs afoul of a worker on the plantation (Paul Dano), and he has to be sold to a different owner for Solomon's own safety after he is almost hung by the vengeful worker.  This leads him to working for the violent and cruel Epps (Michael Fassbender), where he spends most of the remaining time during his years in slavery.  Epps wakes up his slaves in the middle of the night so that they will dance and play music for him for his own amusement.  We also meet another slave on Epps' plantation named Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o), who gets the master's attention by working harder in the cotton fields than anyone else, so he rapes her on a regular basis.  Not only must she endure this, but also the cruelty of Epps' wife (Sarah Paulson), who becomes jealous and goes out of her way to mistreat her above the others.

All the while, Solomon does his best to hold onto what little hope he has by scratching the names of his wife and children into the base of his violin - an object that will later be destroyed in a fit of hopeless rage.  In yet another instance, he tries to gain the trust of a white field hand, and gives him some money he stashed away to deliver a letter for him to his friends back in New York, hoping that someone will come and help him.  The field hand betrays him, and Solomon is forced to burn the letter that could have saved him.  If I am making 12 Years a Slave sound like a movie you endure rather than watch, well, it can certainly seem that way at times.  And yet, it has also been expertly cast, and given a smooth, flowing screenplay by John Ridley (based on Solomon's own published memoir about his experiences).  This is the kind of film where all the elements have come together to create a perfect dramatic experience.  The performances, McQueen's expert direction, the cinematography (which can be beautiful and chilling all at once), and even the music score by Hans Zimmer - not one element here deserves to be overlooked, and aids the film in becoming the unforgettable experience that it is.

I have already listed many moments throughout the film that I will not soon forget, but I am pleased to report that there are many more that I have not talked about.  This is such an expertly put together film, you can expect a moment that is guaranteed to stick with you just about every few scenes or so.  And yet, I think what I enjoyed the most is just how remorseless the film feels.  We are seeing things we haven't seen before in past movies about this subject matter.  This feels like an entirely new experience, rising far above anything that may have come before it this year.  When it was over, I felt sad and angry, but I also felt like I had a cinematic experience I would not have traded for anything.  Not only does it deserve to win Best Picture during the award season early next year, but it deserves to be remembered far long after that.

I think it will be.  12 Years a Slave is not a comfortable movie to watch, but it's one that needs to be experienced.  This is the kind of movie you go to when you want to think, want to feel, and want to experience emotions that very few films can bring out of you.  This movie is simply unforgettable.

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